Apparatus for cutting wires and welding them to elements



March 29, 1949. o. J. MUELLER ETAL 2,465,390 APPARATUS FOR CUTTING WIRESAND WELDING THEM TO ELEMENTS Filed Sept. 24, 1945 6 Sheets-Sheet 1INVENTORS, 0/?0 JMW/fi AT EY March 29, 1949. o. J. MUELLER ETAL2,465,390

. APPARATUS FOR CUTTING WIRES AND I WELDING THEM TO ELEMENTS Filed Sept.24, 1945 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 I IN V EN TORS.

March 29, 1949. o. J. MUELLER EIAL 2,465,390

APPARATUS FOR CUTTING WIRES AND WELDING THEM TO ELEMENTS 6 Sheets-Sheet3 Filed Sept. 24, 194s OWM am m 005W BWNN INVENTORS;

a 0 m2 w Z M March 29, 1949. 01.1. MUELLER ETAL 2,465,390

APPARATUS FOR CUTTING WIRES AND WELDING THEM TO ELEMENTS 6 Sheets-Sheet4 Filed Sept. 24, 1945 I N VEN TORS.

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APPARATUS FOR CUTTING WIRES AND WELDING THEM TO ELEMENTS Filed Sept. 24,1945 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 March 29, 1949. O J, MUELLER ETAL 2,465,390

w P T March 29, 1949. o. J. MUELLER ETAL 2,465,390 APPARATUS FOR CUTTINGWIRES AND WELDING THEM TO ELEMENTS 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Sept. 24, 194501 /0 d/l/ae BY 14/ /Z.

ATTOR Y Patented Mar. 29, 1949 APPARATUS FOR CUTTING WIRES AND WELDINGTHEM TO ELEMENTS Otto J. Mueller, Rutherford, and Albert L. Babcock,Newark, N. J., assignors to Federal Tolephone and Radio Corporation, NewYork, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application September 24, 1945,Serial No. 618,336

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for and a. method ofcutting wires and welding them to elements, and in particular torectifier elements.

The welding of wire pieces to small devices, such as 1 mm. rectifiers isa difiicult and timeconsuming operation particularly in view of thesmall size of the rectifiers to be treated.

It is, therefore, the main object of the present invention to devise anapparatus which automatically and continuously welds a piece of wire toeach terminal of a rectifier element and after cutting a certainpredetermined length of the wire moves the rectifier ahead on a conveyorfrom a first welding station where a piece of wire has been welded toone terminal of the rectifier element to a second welding station whereanother piece of wire is welded to the other terminal of the rectifierelement, and then the other piece of wire is cut at a certainpredetermined length, whereupon the rectifier now equipped with twowires is moved on.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide means forfeeding the wire to the two welding stations.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide meansfor cutting the wire at predetermined length.

It is another object of the invention to provide means for feedingsuccessively a plurality of rectifiers to a first welding station fromthere to a second welding station and then out from the last mentionedstation.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide means formoving wire to the respective welding stations into welding position andmeans for retaining the wire at said stations for a predetermined timelyperiod before cutting the latter.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide meansfor coordinating the wire feeding means, the welding means and thecutting means as well as the rectifier holding means in such a way thatthe respective operations are performed in proper succession.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method offeeding wire to welding stations, feeding elements in succession to therespective welding stations, holding the wire and the elements inposition during the respective welding operations, and cutting therespective wires upon completion of the welding operations.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a methodfor operating the wire feeding means to the respective welding stations,

the wire cutting means, and the wire welding means in proper timelycoordination.

With these and other objects in view the pressent invention will becomeapparent and will be clearly understood from the following detaileddescription in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is an elevational' front view of the apparatus for cutting andwelding wire on rectifier elements;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus as shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an elevational'side view of the apparatus;

Fig. 4 is a plan view, the top plate of the supporting frame and allelements supported by it being removed for the purpose of betterdemonstration;

Fig. 5 shows in enlarged scale an elevational front view of theoperating mechanism of the apparatus;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view in accordance with the lines 6-6 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view in accordance with the lines 1-1 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 shows in enlarged scale a front elevation of the wire feedingmeans;

Fig. 9 shows a side elevational view of the wire feeding, means as showninFig. 8;

Fig. 10 shows the cam operating the wire cutting device;

Fig. 11 shows the cam operating the rectifier holding device;

Fig. 12 shows the cam operating the welding device;

Fig. 13 shows a diagram of the shape of the cam operating the wirefeeding device; and

Fig. 14 shows an elevational view of a rectifier element with the wireswelded on both sides in enlarged scale. for purpose of betterdemonstration.

Referring now to the drawings, the apparatus consists of a table-likeframe I which is equip"ed with a lower supporting plate 2 and an uppersupporting plate 3.

The lower supporting plate 2 is adapted to support the motor 4 whichdrives all operating devices through a speed reducer 5. As clearly shownin Figs. 3 and 4, the motor 4 is connected by a belt 6 with a maindriving shaft 1 which over proper transmissions as belt drives 8 drivestwo operating shafts 9, as well as one wheel of an end less conveyor asdescribed later.

The operating shafts 9 are mounted in bearings I8 supported by the topplate 3 of the frame I in parallel and somewhat spaced position atopposite sides of the mentioned conveyor. Each one of the shafts 9carries a driving wheel II, a cam I2 for operation of the wire feedingdevice, a cam I3 for operation of the wire cutting device, a cam I4 foroperation of the rectifier holding device and a disc I5 for operation ofthe welding device.

The wire feeding device is clearly disclosed in Figs. 5, '7, 8 and 9.Two guides I6 are mounted preferably by screws I! on top of the upperplate 3 which is equipped with a longitudinal slot I8 extending parallelto the guides I6. A sliding base I9 is adapted to reciprocate betweenthe guides I6 in a direction parallel to the shaft 9. One end of thebase I3 is of preferably rectangular cross-section whereas its other endis equipped with upwardly extending arm portions 28 thus forming asubstantially U-cross-section. The arm port ons 28' are wider near thebase I9 and stepped to narrower upward extensions. As shown particularlyin Figs. 8 and 9, the steps in the arm portions 20 provide an inclinedface 2| which extends upwards from the rear face of the arm portions 20to their forward face. Each one of the arm portions 20 is provided witha crosswise extending threaded boring 22 near ther top, which borings 22are adapted to receive studs 23. The sliding base I 9 is also equippedwith a recess 24 which is adapted to receive a coil spring 25. Athreaded boring 23 extending vertically through the base plate I9 nearits rear end is also provided and adapted to receive a set screw 21.Both the recess 24 and the threaded boring 26 are preferably arrangedalong the longitudinal center line of the sliding base I9 between thearm portions 20. The wire feeding device comprises a member 28 in theshape of an inverted U, to be inserted between the arm portions 20 ofthe sliding base I9 between two bushings 29. The top of the member 28 isprovidedwith a transverse boring 33 which receives the studs 23 therebyserving as pivot around which the member 28,

can turn. The front leg portion 3| of the member 28 is provided with acircular boring 32 of substantially larger diameter than the diameter ofthe w re, and the rear leg portion 33 of the member 28 is provided witha cylindrical boring 34 of a diameter closely approximating the diameterof the wire 35 to be pulled. Two rollers 36 are inserted in superposedposition in the space between the legs 3| and 33. The rollers 36 are ofgreater length than the width of the member 28 (Fig. 9) and nearly abutthe arm portions 28. The lower roller 38 rests on the inclined face 2!of the stepped arms 20, whereas the upper roller 38 rests on the lowerroller. The lower end of the leg portion 3| of the member 28 has avertically extending recess 31 adapted to receive the upper end of thecoil spring 25, the lower end of which is inserted in the recess 24 ofthe sliding base I9. By this arrangement the spring 25 will tend to turnthe body around the pivot 23, which turning movement can be adjustablylim'ted by means of the set screw 21 inserted in the threaded boring 26of the sliding base I9. The rollers 36 are adapted to receive the wire35 between them and upon moving the sliding base I9 in the direction ofthe arrow 37, shown in full lines, the lower roller 38 will roll upwardson the inclined face 2I and thereby be pressed against the wire 35 andthe upper roller 36. The wire 35 clamped between the two rollers 36 ismoved for the same length as the sliding base I9 travels. Upon return ofthe sliding base I9 to its original position in the direction of thearrow 38, shown in dotted lnes, the lower roller is again moved on theinclined face 2 I, however, this time downwardly, thereby releasing thepressure against the Wire 35 and the upper roller 36. Thus the slidingbase I9 together with the member 28 will move backwards along the wire35 without any friction, which wire 35 will remain and be retained inits position by a second clamping device to be described later. In orderto assure a reciprocating movement of the sliding base I9, the lattercarries at its front end a bolt 39 the lower end of which is equippedwith a follower roller 40 to be operated by the cam I2 which is keyed onthe shaft 9. As shown in Fig. 5, the bolt 33 moves upon turning theshaft 9 and thereby of the cam I2 from a rear position (shown in solidlines) to an extreme front position (shown in dotted lines), whereas thereturn to its original position is achieved by a spring 4| one end ofwhich is connected to the front end of the sliding base I9, whereas itsother end is connected with a suitable mounting 4| attached to the topplate 3 of the frame I.

The above mentioned second clamping device 42, which is constructedpreferably identically with the clamping device on the sliding base I9,is secured to the guides I6 and therefore remains stationary. The wire35 advanced by the clamping device mounted on the sliding base ill willbe moved through the clamping device 42 and in particular between itsrollers 43 without any friction since the lower roller 43 of the device42 rests again on an inclined face rising again from the rear to thefront face of the arms of the device 42. However, a tendency to withdrawthe wire from the advanced position during the return movement of thesliding base I!) will be avoided, since a withdrawal of the wire wouldimmed ately be blocked by the clamping action of the lower roller 43 ofthe device 42.

In order to provide a continuous feed of wire, two drums 44 arerotatably secured on the top plate 3 of the frame I, one for eachwelding station. A number, preferably four rollers 45 are providedbetween the drums 44 and the clamping and feeding device for the wire 35in order to straighten out the wire 35 before it enters the member 28.

Whereas the feeding device above described has the task of feeding acertain length of wire into a predetermined position just abovetheterminals 46 of the rectifier element 47, the wire cutting device 48is effective to cut the front end of a portion of the wire 35, the rearend of which is to be welded by means of the Welding device 43 to theterminal 46 of the rectifier 41.

It has been disclosed above that the wire feeding device is operated bythe cam I2, whereas the cutting device 48, a holding device 58, and thewelding device 49 are operated by the respective cams I3, I4 and discI5, as will be described later. The rectifier elements 41 are fed to thefirst welding station, where upon stopping of their movement one wire iswelded on, from there to the second welding station wher again uponstopping their movement the second wire is welded on and finally to. areceiving chute (not shown) by an endlessconveyor 5|. which. runs overwheels 52, one of. which is driven by a belt drive 53 from the speedreducer 5. Each one of the two welding stations is equipped with a wirefeeding device, a wire cutting and a welding a vertical reciprocatingmovement by inserting it into a holder 56, the end of which is equippedwith a follower roller 51 pressed against the cam [3 by a spring 58 oneend of which is supported by a crosswise extending pin 58 whereas itsother end abuts against the lower face of the top plate 3. of the frameI. When the follower roller 51 is raised to the upper dwell of the camHi the knife 54 is raised correspondingly and the spring 58 returns theknife 54 to its previous lower position when the follower roller 5'!reaches again v the lower dwell of the cam l3.

The holding device 59 for the rectifier element 41' is illustrated inFigs. 5 and 6 of the drawings. This device comprises essent ally adouble-armed lever 60 which is pivoted on the stud is! supported in abracket attached to top plate 3. The downward extending arm 63 of thelever 6B carries at the lower end a follower roller 64 which by means ofa spring 65 is pressed aga nst the earn it. One end of the spring 65 isattached to the arm 63 of the lever 60 whereas the other end of thespring-65 is connected to a bolt 65 mounted on top plate 3 of frame I.The upwards extending arm 61 of the lever 60 is bifurcated and adaptedto catch the terminals 46 extending sidewards "a.

from the rectifier element 4'! and thereby retaining the rectifierelement l'iin a position abutting against the branches of the arm 61despite continuous movement of the conveyor 5!. The arm 61 is sopositioned that the branches hold one of the terminals being exactlybetween the poles of the welding device 69. When the follower roller 64reaches the upper dwell of the cam M, the downwards extending arm 63 ofthe lever to will be turned around the pivot 61 in the direction of thearrow shown in Fig. 6, thereby lowering the upwardly extending arm 61below the path of the rectifier element 41. The rectifier element 41 oneof the terminals it of which just received a piece of wire will moveforward with the conveyor 5!, and since the roller 64 returns to thelower dwell within a very short period, the arm 9'! of the lever 68 israised again before the next rectifier element ll carried by theconveyor 5| reaches the welding station.

Thus the next rectifier element if is caught again and held in pos tionduring the welding operation for the entire cycle until it is releasedby the follower rollers 64 reaching again the high dwell of the cam l4.This operation takes place in both welding stations in the same mannerand at the same time.

As discussed before, the welding device 49 is operated by the disc l5which carries an extension shown as a bolt 69. One. end of a chain '19is attached to the bolt 69 and its other end to an extension H of adouble-armed lever 'l l rotatable about a pivot 13 supported by anauxiliary frame 62. The welding device consists mainly of two electrodeholders, one in the form of a pivoted arm 12 and the other in the formof a stationar arm 14. Any kind of welding device can be used inconnection with the present apparatus and the device shown in thedrawings is merely given by example. The known device illustrated is 6formed with the free ends of the lever 1 I and the arm 12 beingconnected by a spring 15, in order to meet any unexpected resistanceagainst lowering of the Welding arm '12. Another spring 16 one end ofwhich is attached to the rear end of the arm 12 and the other end ofwhich is attached to another auxiliary frame 68 tends to keep the arm 12in the lifted inoperative position. The chain 19 runs over preferablythree rollers 11 and once in every cycle upon rotating of the shaft 9the welding arm 12 is lowered into welding operative position. Uponfurther turning of the shaft 9 the spring 16 returns the arm 12 to itslifted inoperative position,

The cams l2, I3, 14, and disc l5 are keyed on the shaft 9 in suchrelative position that the operations to be performed are in propertimely succession. As shown in Fig. 5 the follower roller of the bolt 39mounted in the sliding base I9 rema ns on the lower dwell of the cam l2for a period of about The feeding movement of the wire extends over aperiod from 45 to 270 by comparatively slow rising of the dwell of thecam l3. Over a period from 270 to 315", that is again over a period of45, the wire feeder remains in the advanced position whereupon thereturn movement of the bolt 39 takes place over a compa afivey shortperiod from 315 to 360, that is within 45. Thus it can.be seen that thepulling period extends over 225 whereas the end return movement extendsonly over 45.

As shown in Fig. 10, the cam l3 which operates the knife 54 shows a risefrom the lower dwell to the upper dwe l over a period of only 10 whichrepresents the cutting period of the wire 35. Upon reaching the highdwell the knife is immediately lowered over a period of 35. The followerroller 51 operating this cam l3 remains on the lower dwell for the restof the cycle, namely for 315, whereupon again the cutting per od of thenext piece of wire begins, which wire has been moved ahead in themeantime.

The cam M as shown in Fig. 11 operates the holding device 59 for therectifier elements 41. Since the rectifier elements are arranged on theconveyor 5| in short spaced position, it is necessary to lift and lowerthe arm 61 of the lever 60 comparatively fast. Consequently the followerroller M rises from the lower dwell of the cam [4 to its upper dwell fora period of only 12 at the end of which period the bifurcated arm 6'! islowered out of the path of the rectifier element 47. The follower rollerremains then on the upper dwell for a period of 20 in order to give justtime to move the next rectifier element into welding position whereuponthe arm 61 is very fast lifted again, namely for a period of 12. For theremaining period, namely for 316 the follower roller 64 remains on thelower dwell of the cam It which corresponds with the raised position ofthe arm 6'! during which the rectifier element is held in weldingposition.

The disc I5, as shown in Fig. 12 and already stated before, is equippedwith a bolt 69 on which one end of the chain I9 is attached. By turningthe shaft 9 and thereby the disc l5 the arm 12 of the welding device 49will perform a reciproeating turning movement. It will remain in thelower position for just a short time interval during which the weldingcircuit is closed by'known means (not shown) and the welding of the endof the wire 35 to the terminal 46 of the rectifier element 41 takesplace. The spring 16 assures the returning lifting movement of thewelding 7 arm 12 during the corresponding position of the disc IS.

The apparatus, as described above, for cutting and welding of wireoperates in the following manner:

As stated above the apparatus comprises mainly a wire feeding device, awire cutting device, a rectifier feeding device and a welding device.Each one of the devices performs one operation within the cycle of 360.The succession of the operations is the following: First, when therectifier element is kept in position by means of the holding device andthe wire is also held in position by means of the stationary clampingdevice, the welding takes place by operating the welding device by meansof the disc l5. The cam I3 is keyed to the shaft 9 in such a way thatimmediately upon completing the welding step the follower roller 51 israised up to the upper dwell for a period of 10 (Fig. 10) therebyperforming the cutting of the wire. Upon completing the cutting step theknife 54 is lowered again over a period of 35. After completing the lastmentioned 45 of the cycle two devices start operating at the same time,namely the holding device for the rectifier element and the wire feedingdevice. The holding device for the rectifier element is operated by thecam l4 and is keyed on the shaft 9 in such a way that the followerroller 64 starts rising for a period of 12 from the lower to the upperdwell of the cam l4, remains on the upper dwell for 20 and then fallsagain to the lower dwell for a period of 12 (Fig. 11). During a periodof 20 in which the follower roller 54 is on the upper dwell of the cam Mthe holding device is lowered and allows the passing of the rectifierelement with the conveyor 5| which element has been subjected to thewelding process and at the same time the next rectifier elementpositioned on the conveyor 5| is brought into welding position. Beforethis rectifier element passes the welding station the holding device islowered again due to the short period of the upper dwell of the cam l4and thereby retains this rectifier element in position. This rectifierelement is held in position for the remainder of the cycle until at thebeginning of the next cycle a wire which has been fed to this rectifierelement in the meantime is welded to one terminal of this rectifierelement.

iiximely parallel with the operation just described in connection withthe holding device the wire feeding device performs its operation. Atthe end of the 15 period described above in connection with the holdingdevice the wire feeding device performs its operation. At the end of the45 period described above in connection with the cutting device the camI2 is in such a position in the shaft 9 that the follower roller 40 islocated on the lower dwell of the cam l2. For a period of 225 thefollower roller will rise to the upper dwell of cam l2 thereby pullingthe wire for a predetermined length against the rectifier element andwhen the upper level is reached, the wire will remain in the mostforward position, namely the end of the wire partly covering theterminal of the rectifier element, as shown in Fig. 5. After a furtherperiod of 45 the last movement of the feeding device will start bylowering the follower roller again from the upper dwell to the lowerdwell, which return movement is completed in a period of 45. During thereturn movement the feeding device glides over the wire back to theoriginal position, The wire itself is held against return movement bythe clamping device 42. The different devices remain in the respectivepositions to the end of the cycle and at the beginning of the next cyclethe welding device starts again the first of the operations.

The just described succession of operations of welding and cutting ofwire takes place at each one of the two welding stations at the sametime and as particularly Fig. 3 demonstrates one power source drivesboth shafts 9 as well as one wheel of the conveyor 5| carrying therectifier elements.

While we have disclosed the principles of our invention in connectionwith a single embodiment, it will be understood that this embodiment isgiven by way of example only and not as limiting the scope of theinvention as set forth in the objects and the appended claims.

What we claim is:

1. In an apparatus for cutting and welding of wire to a rectifierelement having two oppositely extending terminals, an endless conveyorcarrying a plurality of said rectifier elements, two welding stationsarranged along said conveyor, each one of said welding stationscomprising a wire feeding device, a wire cutting device, a rectifierholding device and a welding device, said wire feeding device consistingof a reciprocating clamping member and a stationary clamping member,said reciprocating clamping member blocking the wire during movement inthe feeding direction, said stationary clamping member blocking the saidwire during the return movement of the said reciprocating clampingmember, said cutting member consisting of a knife adapted to perform areciprocating movement in a plane about to the feeding movement of thewire, said holding device consisting of a reciprocating lever arm,bifurcated ends on said arm adapted to extend into the path of theterminals of said rectifier element, cams operating the said wirefeeding device, the said wire cutting device, the said rectifier holdingdevice and the said welding device, said devices being operated by saidcams in predetermined timely succession.

2. Clamping means for feeding of wire comprising a sliding base, meansfor reciprocating said sliding base, upwardly extending arms on saidsliding base, a pivot arranged crosswise at the top of said arms, aninclined face on the inside of said arms, said face extending upwardsfrom the rear face to the front face of said arms, a U-shaped memberinserted between the said arms and supported by said pivot inserted insaid arms, two rollers inserted in superposed position in the open spaceof said U-shaped member, said rollers adapted to receive said wire, thelower of said rollers resting on said inclined face.

3. In an apparatus for cutting and welding of portions of wire to ametal member, comprising a conveyor carrying a plurality of said metalmembers, at least one welding station arranged along said conveyor, saidwelding station including a wire feeding device, a wire cutting device,a device for holding one of said members and a welding device, said wirefeeding device consisting of a reciprocating clamping member and astationary clamping member, said cutting member including a knifearranged for movement in a plane substantially 90 with respect to thefeeding movement of the wire, said holding device consisting of areciprocating lever arm having a portion extending into the path of saidmetallic member, and means for operating said wire feed- 9 ing device,said wire cutting device, said member holding device and said weldingdevice in a predetermined succession.

OTTO J. MUELLER. ALBERT L. BAB'COCK. 5

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

Number UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Smith July 15, 1919 Muller, Jr.et a1. Mar. 13, 1923 Campbell May 27, 1924 Marcell Jan. 10, 1928 LelandMar. 5, 1935 Hilbert Mar. 15, 1938

